the organization I work at wants to create a custom Ubuntu LiveCD, the customizations are: Pre-installed programs, plugins, some device drivers, and aesthetics such as icons and backgrounds, as well as changing Firefox's homepage and removing unneeded packages.

Not big changes, obviously, and we wish to distribute this custom image for clients to use as a bootable CD or USB stick in order to have a quick environment where all our tools are available instantly.

What are the licensing and legal consequences of this? What if some of the programs or plugins that are to be pre-packaged are not GPL'd?
I should finally note that we are not changing any code in the kernel or any other distro component.

4 Answers
4

You can certainly make a distribution based on Ubuntu, and as far as I know there is no specific restriction on the live CD, so you can make derivative works based on it.

The code isn't be a problem: as far as I know it's all freely redistribuable software, Ubuntu doesn't have any specific rights to distribute that you don't also have. But the branding — trademarks and artwork — might be. The obvious thing you should check is what you may do with the Ubuntu artwork, and how you're allowed to use the name (it's trademarked).

A typical example of artwork and trademark-related limitation is the Iceweasel saga. The Mozilla foundation wants only “acceptable” derivatives of Firefox to have the Firefox brand, so even though the software is free software (as in free speech), the branding is not. Although the Mozilla foundation was prepared to trust Debian to make only acceptable changes, such as security fixes, they were not willing to extend that trust to others. But the Debian Free Software Guidelines specify that the “license must not be specific to Debian”, so that people in your position know that they can make derivatives. Since no acceptable compromise was found, Debian does not distribute “Firefox”, it distributes “Iceweasel” with the same code and different branding.

Ubuntu is less strict on that point, so if you want to make a derivative, you do have to check whether you may retain the branding on any component you change (starting with the distribution as a whole).

IANAL and definitly not american one (I've never been in America so far not mentioning US) but isn't it required by american law that trademark holder activly defend the right in court (failing to do so they would lost the trademark). Canonical is based in Europe where it is not required and the trademarks may be covered by international law (as I said - I am not a lawer).
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Maciej PiechotkaJan 15 '11 at 19:57

I honestly don't know what you're talking about. What does Mozilla's trademark has to do with my question?
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VoulnetJan 15 '11 at 12:17

@Voulnet you asked about legal consequences, and Mozilla has some rules about what you can do to Firefox and still call it that. I'm not sure if you can add plugins and change the homepage and call it Firefox.
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xenoterracideJan 15 '11 at 12:20

@Voulnet Firefox does matter, because the Ubuntu live CD includes Firefox. Canonical probably has arrangements for that...
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phuneheheJan 15 '11 at 12:30

Alright, thanks. I'll look into the Firefox matter. Note that when I say plugins, I don't mean extensions. I'll just add NPAPI plugins to the folder where Firefox and the NPAPI-enabled browsers can see them, so the only change I'll make to Firefox is changing the homepage.
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VoulnetJan 15 '11 at 12:42

What about the adding some device drivers/some changing icons and backgrounds/removing unneeded packages for Ubuntu itself?
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VoulnetJan 15 '11 at 12:43

I think if you are re-distributing it for free you do not have to do anything. But if you are trying to sell it for commercial purpose you need to care about every packages it contain with there GPL/LGPL/MPL etc license terms. And you should have a third party license documentation, where you have to list all the package it is using and give the source link such as git/svn/http url for that packages. For example if you have 5000 packages in your CD, you should write them in your license document all 5000 packages.